LEWISTON — The Lewiston girls basketball team is not shy about taking 3-point shots.
The Blue Devils showered the court with shots from behind the arc as they collected their first victory of the season — a 53-35 victory over Deering in a Class AA North girls basketball game on Thursday evening.
Eight of Lewiston’s 10 made 3-pointers came in the first half alone.
“No, they are not shy about taking the 3-pointer,” Lewiston coach Craig Jipson said. “We don’t have a lot of size, so we are going to need to take some 3s. We have to hit it a little more consistently. We didn’t score much in the second half.
“We came out shooting like (gangbusters). I (also) like defensively what we did in the first quarter. We are just not so very deep, so some kids are playing a lot minutes. Deering played a lot of kids with a lot minutes, too. These are two teams that really didn’t go deep into the bench.”
Jipson said there is certainly more room for improvement for the Blue Devils when it comes to rebounding.
“We’ve got to rebound,” he said. “We’ve been getting killed on the boards all year long.”
Lewiston junior forward Natalie Beaudoin led all scorers with 24 points. She also nailed down six 3-pointers and went 4 for 6 from the free-throw line. Koral Morin scored 12 points for the Devils (1-5).
“I did hit a lot of shots today, but my teammates are also shooting well.” Beaudoin said. “It was so nice to have their energy. It was good energy, so we all had nice shots.
“I think we definitely have to work a lot on our defense … but overall, we played well as a team and we shot the ball well.”
By halftime, Lewiston rested easy with a 34-16 lead.
The Blue Devils had a bit of a letdown after putting on a long-range show of 3s that crisscrossed the Fern Masse Court skyline.
But in the fourth quarter, Lewiston rebounded better and fended off the Rams.
Natalie Santiago led the Rams (0-5) with 14 points. She also landed three 3-pointers. Maya Gayle added 11 points to help Deering’s cause.
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